Sofar Liverpool are celebrating the coffee joints and their wonderful communities.
Intimate performances from rising talents in music and poetry, against the backdrop of some of the most relaxing spaces the city has to offer.
First up, they’ll be at Pocket Cafe.
The roaring, rousing atmosphere of traditional Irish pubs will be brought to stages across the country as Emmy Award-winning group The Shamrocks embark on their debut UK tour.
After wowing audiences across the globe – from the Sydney Opera House to the Kennedy Center in Washington DC – the five-piece harmony and multi-instrumental group are taking their incredible show and Belfast charm to some of the UK’s most prestigious venues.
Dubbed ‘one of Northern Ireland’s greatest ever exports’, The Shamrocks promise a night packed full of Irish charm, with classics including Danny Boy, Wild Rover and Whiskey In The Jar reimagined in their unique style, alongside original songs and compositions. Featuring some of Northern Ireland’s most exciting musical talent, with more than 100 million views of their videos online and concerts in more than 30 countries, The Shamrocks continue to reimagine the Irish songbook as we know it, while celebrating their roots.
Dolly Parton and Friends Tribute Show
Endorsed by Dolly Parton live on BBC’s The One Show
The World’s Biggest Country Music Tribute Touring Show is rolling into town with a spectacular, award-winning cast! As seen in London’s West End at the Adelphi Theatre where it was given a 5 star review, honoured at the Grand Ole Opry, and celebrated on Nashville’s Broadway, this internationally acclaimed production is a must-see for country music fans.
Described by Kenny Rogers as “Europe’s leading Dolly and Kenny impersonators”, this one-of-a-kind show is hosted by the star of The Dolly Parton Experience, Sarah Jayne, Europe’s leading tribute to the Queen of Country. With over 31 years of performances under her rhinestone belt, Sarah has even entertained VIPs on Dolly Parton’s last two world tours at London’s O2 Arena.
Joining her on stage is award-winning TV vocal impressionist Andy Crust, bringing to life the legendary voice of Kenny Rogers and more. Together with their daughter Lucy Jayne, this show is a celebration of family, legacy, and pure country magic.
Featuring 12 award-winning impersonations of country superstars:
Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Billie Jo Spears, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Garth Brooks, John Denver, Shania Twain, Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs all backed by the phenomenal Country Superstars Band.
Both Sarah and Andy have graced the legendary Legends Corner and Johnny Cash’s Kitchen & BBQ on Nashville’s famed Broadway, and were honoured at the Grand Ole Opry as featured Tribute Artists of the Year and on CBS Nashville and CH5’s Forrest Saunders Show.
This spectacular production goes far beyond impersonation. Every detail is thoughtfully crafted, from vocal accuracy and authentic costumes, to mannerisms, make-up, and stunning video backdrops. Even the voiceovers in the show are provided by Dolly’s real-life friends and family, including a very special personal message from Dolly herself.
Sing along to timeless classics including:
9 to 5, Jolene, Islands in the Stream, The Gambler, Annie’s Song, Ring of Fire, Blanket on the Ground, Stand by Your Man, Take Me Home Country Roads, I Walk the Line, Always on My Mind, Beautiful Crazy, That Don’t Impress Me Much, Man! I Feel Like a Woman, Crazy, Coward of the County, The Dance, Standing Outside the Fire, Country’s Cool Again and many more.
A dazzling, heartfelt tribute to the music, the superstars, and the legacy of country.
Country music will live on forever – a great night out for any country fan!
This is a chance for 20 people only to join some of Liverpool’s finest Irish musicians and dancers for a fun and lively introduction to Irish set dancing.
Set dancing is céilí’s more challenging cousin! It’s a group social dance, done in sets of eight people, and features Ireland’s trademark fast music and intricate footwork.
Over the six-week course you will learn the basics of the footwork, including some percussive, battering steps, and structure of the dances and get an introduction to the history of music of the dance.
The classes will be relaxed and informal and feature musicians from Liverpool Ceilidh Band and teachers from Liverpool Irish Centre and Movema dance company.
You can come with a partner or on your own. Please wear light, comfortable clothing and preferably some hard soled shoes.
Open to over 16’s.
7-9pm, Tuesday nights:
27th October
3rd November
10th November
17th November
24th November
1st December.
If you appreciate the music of Shane MacGowan and The Pogues, you cannot miss The Phogues. Keeping alive the very songs that defined the genre ‘Celtic Punk’.
Going way beyond a tribute band The Phogues diligently recreate the way The Pogues tempered Irish Music with subtle influences of Flamenco and Middle Eastern music on some songs.
The Phogues live performances will give you songs penned by one of the best lyricists of our time, Shane MacGowan, played by musicians at the top of their game, commemorating 40 years since the release of the first Pogues album Red Roses for Me.
“A guaranteed good night!” in the words of Shane MacGowan: ‘It’s brilliant’.
We have reserved four wheelchair + respective carer/companion spaces for this event. If all four sell, we will add more. Tickets are unreserved and on a first-come first-served basis, but we will ensure front-of-house space is available for those booking these seats. This is an honour-based system for those who need it. Please use responsibly. If you want to buy tickets for more than this user, please add other general admission tickets when placing your order.
Simple opportunity to come along for a tune. The first seisiún of two in the Festival, the other takes place the following Fri (23 Oct 2026).
Bring an instrument, your voice and a will to play along. There’ll be Festival friends to help bring the gang together. A fully stocked bar — in one of the most historic and quirkiest pubs in Liverpool — eases you towards the dawn. This event gets busy quickly and sometimes it’s ‘standing room only’. Be prepared to ‘hotch up’ and swap places so everyone can get a piece of the action. This is a night that almost guarantees high kicks ’til dawn.
Some bands fill arenas. Kíla fill the air itself.
For over three decades, this seven-piece Dublin collective have been one of Ireland’s best-kept secrets and greatest musical forces. They are a band that defies genre, rewires tradition, and leaves audiences physically changed by their experience.
Having played some of the world’s most legendary stages, to audiences of thousands, tonight they play to fewer than two hundred. This is that show.
Rooted in the ancient pulse of Irish folk — uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhrán, bones — yet propelled by djembe, brass, electric guitar and a restless, world-hungry imagination, Kíla’s sound is unlike anything you will hear elsewhere. It is furious and tender, primal and precise. The jigs hit like percussion. The melodies haunt for days. Their IFTA award-winning film scores — for Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar-nominated trilogy The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers — hint at their cinematic scale. But nothing prepares you for the live experience.
Eight years since their last gig in the city, Kíla return to Liverpool to one of the finest acoustic rooms in the country. Every note will reach you. Every rhythm will find you. Kila’s Gaeilge will transform you.
This is rare. This is intimate. This is a band of genuine, extraordinary talent playing close up.
Resonating with this year’s festival theme, I Am Here, Kíla’s deep Irish roots provide precisely the kind of night that grounds you in identity, purpose and place. Don’t miss it. Truly, you won’t get another chance like this.
A wonderful opportunity to dance with live musicians, play for live dancing and learn about sean-nós.
Sean-nós dance is ‘old style’ percussive dance from Ireland. It’s really fun, low to the ground, improvised and in the music. You are supposed to dance like yourself, responding to how the music moves you, a great way to express yourself and say ‘I am here’.
Learn some of the history and customs of this traditional art form, dance steps and improvisational techniques alongside some of the best Irish traditional musicians in Liverpool.
Suitable for all abilities and for adults and young people who can concentrate and follow a class structure. Musicians are also encouraged to attend to deepen their understanding of playing for dancers and the natural lift and dynamism in traditional Irish dance music.
Led by Maria Malone from Movema dance charity and influential fiddle player Mikey Kenney.
Irish people have made homes all over the world, and Liverpool is no exception. It’s known affectionately as East Dublin, East Belfast, and the 33rd county. This year, Liverpool Irish Festival asks what it means to arrive: to cross a threshold, claim a space, and say simply: I am here.
Rooted in that spirit of arrival, the George Ferguson Irish Dance School and Merseyside’s Melody Makers have collaborated to create a programme that celebrates the many ways we come home. Whether home is somewhere new or somewhere long known, being there carries its own weight of anticipation, expectation and nostalgia. This year invited guests will take to the stage (along with some audience members!). Their presence will serve as their own statement of being.
This engaging two-hour programme brings together over 50 musicians and dancers from across Merseyside. They’ll perform in one of Liverpool’s most magnificent settings: the ever-emerald Sefton Park Palm House. A space that has sheltered and sustained living things for over a century feels like the right place to celebrate a community that has done the same.
Liverpool Irish Festival is proud to present this thematic collaboration as part of an ongoing series of bespoke programmes and a performance that is becoming a firm fixture of the Festival calendar. Grab your tickets whilst you can.
♿: We have created spaces for eight wheelchair spaces. These are linked with companion/carer spaces. To purchase one of these, please pick your wheelchair space (highlighted yellow at the point of booking). We will automatically save the seat next to your reserved space for your companion/carer. You will be charged one concession priced ticket for the two spaces on your selected row.
Celebrating 25 years on the road in 2026, Téada are one of Irish traditional music’s most celebrated and hard-working ensembles — described by one American critic as “arguably the most vibrant and hard-working traditional Irish music ensemble in the world today”.
Rooted in the living tradition yet alive to the wider world, the Sligo-based group have headlined major festivals across North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Australia, performing to audiences of up to 40,000 on their landmark Japanese and Taiwanese tours. Closer to home, they are a familiar and much-loved presence at Ireland’s greatest festivals, from Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann to Temple Bar TradFest.
The band’s current line-up brings together some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians: Oisín Mac Diarmada on fiddle, Paul Finn on button accordion, Damien Stenson on flute, Seán McElwain on guitar and bouzouki, Tristan Rosenstock on bodhrán and the award-winning step dancer and pianist Samantha Harvey.
Their most recent album on Gael Linn features special guest appearances by Hollywood actor and singer John C. Reilly and the late, great Séamus Begley — a fitting record from a band who carry the tradition with both pride and joy. Don’t miss them!
Presented in partnership by Return to London Town and Liverpool Irish Festival, with support from Culture Ireland.